# cunctus
## Latin
### Alternative forms

* cuntus

### Etymology

Uncertain. Proposals include:
* From concitus by syncope per Pokorny (1959), accepted by De Vaan (2008) with some reservations. Ernout and Meillet (1985) reject this etymology, and also reject the ancient etymology from co(n)iūnctus.
* According to Sihler (1995), from Proto-Indo-European *ponkʷ-u- (“whole, entire”), which he reconstructs as the ancestor also of Hittite 𒉺𒀭𒆪𒍑 (pa-an-ku-uš, “whole, entire; senate”) and Hittite [script needed] (pa-an-kur, “family, relations”), as well as the middle part of Ancient Greek ἅπαξ (hápax, “singly”). The Latin form would then show the same /p – kʷ > kʷ – kʷ/ assimilation as in quīnque. De Vaan rejects this etymology, saying that based on its genitive singular form pankawaš, Hittite pankuš cannot be cognate to Latin cū̆nctus and is more likely related to Sanskrit बहु (bahu).
* From Proto-Indo-European *ponkʷ-to- (“whole, entire”), from *pénkʷe (“whole hand; five (fingers)”). In this case cognate to Sanskrit पञ्च (pañca, “spread out”), Sanskrit प्रपञ्चन (prapañcana, “copiousness”).
* Ancient etymologists explained it as a contraction of *cōiūnctus, making it a doublet of coniūnctus (“conjoined, connected”); this is today rejected.

### Pronunciation

* (Classical Latin) IPA: /ˈkuːnk.tus/, [ˈkuːŋkt̪ʊs̠] or IPA: /ˈkunk.tus/, [ˈkʊŋkt̪ʊs̠]
* (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA: /ˈkunk.tus/, [ˈkuŋkt̪us]
* Note: the length of the root vowel is uncertain; length is regular before /nkt/, but this depends on whether the syncope preceded the lengthening. This is further complicated by the existence in Latin of an Osthoff's law-like tendency to shorten vowels followed by nasal+stop consonants. Compare the same uncertainity in the unrelated verb cū̆nctor, likely influenced by the adjective via false-etymological derivation or vice versa.

### Adjective

cū̆nctus (feminine cū̆ncta, neuter cū̆nctum); first/second-declension adjective
* collectively, all together; the whole, entire
    Synonyms: (in the plural) omnis, (in the singular) tōtus
** 29 BCE – 19 BCE, Virgil, Aeneid 1.518:cūnctīs nam lēctī nāvibus ībantfor chosen men from all the ships went forth

#### Declension

First/second-declension adjective.

#### References

* ↑ Pokorny, Julius (1959) Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch [Indo-European Etymological Dictionary] (in German), volume 2, Bern, München: Francke Verlag, page 538
* ↑ De Vaan, Michiel (2008) “cunctus”, in Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 7), Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 154
* ↑ Ernout, Alfred, Meillet, Antoine (1985) “cunctus”, in Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue latine: histoire des mots‎ (in French), 4th edition, with additions and corrections of Jacques André, Paris: Klincksieck, published 2001, page 157
* ↑ Sihler, Andrew L. (1995) New Comparative Grammar of Greek and Latin, Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, pages 145, 300, 437

#### Further reading

* “cunctus”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
* “cunctus”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
* cunctus in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
* cunctus in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
* Carl Meißner, Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book‎, London: Macmillan and Co. to be elected unanimousl: omnes centurias ferre or omnium suffragiis, cunctis centuriis creari